Hawk slaat toe (Vandersteen comic)/plot
Colonel Raymond gets a message wrapped in a metal ball thrown through a restaurant window. Hawk has not forgotton the destruction of their Barracuda Base. They vow to make Raymond pay, and Biggles will be the first of their targets. Raymond calls a meeting with Biggles and Marsden, the chef-de-cabinet of the minister. Marsden thinks it is over reacting but Raymond believes Hawk will not stop at killing just Biggles. After Marsden leaves, Raymond plans Biggles' disappearance. He doesn't let Biggles leave his office. He gathers Biggles' things, including a wristwatch which he had sent for repair and packs everything with Biggles into a basket. The crate is then loaded onto an aircraft and Biggles is airdropped by parachute over India. There he can take a vacation pursuing his hobby of archaeology away from the reach of Hawk. Biggles follows a secret itinerary prepared by Raymond and checks in to a small hotel in Gamura where he begins excavations on the ruins of the Kandji temple nearby. Meanwhile, back in London, Scotland Yard agents arrest every Hawk operative known to them. One of them attempt to escape but falls to his death. Just before dying, he tells Raymond's men that Hawk knows Biggles' location and they were planning to depart the next day. Raymond is puzzled about how Hawk could have tracked down Biggles but there is nothing he can do. At Gamura, the proprietress tells Biggles her servant heard an aircraft flying overhead in the night. Then two snake charmers turn up. They perform for Biggles and then persuade him to pose for a photo with a snake. As Biggles moves near to them, one of the snake charmers flings his snake at Biggles. Fortunately, Biggles had been alert. He grips the snake by the neck and smashes its head with a stone. Hawk has found him! Biggles plans another disappearance, climbing unnannouced out of the hotel window by night and sneaking away in a boat on the river. He is far enough away by morning and goes ashore. Nearby, he spots a woman filling water jars. She goes into the river to retrieve a water jar and is attacked by a crocodile. Biggles instinctively jumps in and attempts to squeeze shut the jaws of the crocodile but the crocodile threshes about and knocks Biggles' head against a tree trunk, causing him to lose consciousness. Biggles awakes in the palace of Raj Anund, a local ruler. His men had rescued him and found his equipment including his gun, so Biggles decides to tell Raj the full story. Raj is sympathetic and grateful that Biggles tried to save one of his villagers so he offers him refuge in his palace. After a week, Biggles and Anund take a drive through the village. They see a commotion. An English couple is impatient with some cows blocking their way and the man toots his horn, causing one of the bulls to stampede. Instinctively, Biggles jumps out of the car and attempts to divert the charging bull which narrowly misses the woman. The couple is Ben and Mary Cunnings, film makers. Biggles gets back in the car but Anund tells him the action was rather indiscreet. What's worse, the boy who was with Cunnings had snapped a photo of him. Could they be agents of Hawk? Anund decides to post guards round the palace for his safety. That evening, Biggles is awakened by the screeching of a parrot. Searching the grounds of the palace with a guard, he finds Cunnings' cap! There is also a box by his window sill which turns out to be a time bomb! The guards bring one of the local villagers in. He reports that Ben and Mary had set up a camp in the bamboo bushes nearby and leads Biggles and a few of Anund's guards there. They are right to be suspicious, as Mary is watching by the palace with a radio and alerts Ben of their approach. As Biggles gets near to the camp, the local man suggests that the guards split up to surround it while he presses ahead with Biggles. He also warns Biggles that the boy who snapped his photo is standing guard for Cunnings. Biggles is instantly suspicious and strikes the man a blow and points his gun at him. The report of the man was just too timely, and how did he know about the photo? But the answer comes for Biggles when a masked gunman steps out of the bushes. He's an agent of Hawk and he has found Biggles! He tells the villager to execute Biggles silently with his knife but just then a rifle shot from somewhere kills the executor. The masked man runs off. The mystery rescuer turns out to be Cunnings! He tells Biggles he had been sent by Raymond to protect Biggles. It had not been easy to find him, but a man who takes on a crocodile must expect to leave a trail. Biggles agrees, but somehow Hawk had managed to find him before that, which was a puzzle. Cunnings' boy returns in a jeep. Mary had disappeared and was not at the pick up point! Back at the palace, Raj Anund has received a note. The Karisars, a gang of mountain bandits, have kidnapped Mary. She would be released only if Biggles would come to the ruins of a temple alone in the morning. Biggles plans a rescue with Cunnings. Biggles hides among bales of jute loaded on a camel and is dropped unseen near the temple. He sneaks into the ruins and plants a few mines. In the morning Mary is brought to the temple. Leading the group is a masked man. He must be the Hawk agent! A jeep appears, driven by Cunnings disguised as Biggles. He calls out to the kidnappers and they bring Mary out. She is almost clear when the masked man realises that the jeep driver is not Biggles. Mary and Cunnings dive for cover as Biggles detonates mine after mine, killing the Karisars. He goes after the masked man but he manages to escape. Mary has been rescued but the cover of the Cunnings has been blown, so they depart. Biggles also takes his leave of Raj Anund, climbing out of the palace by night. After another long journey, he approaches a village and is suddenly pinned down by a tiger! Fortunately a villager calls out to the tiger and orders it to back off. It turns out to be Kolog. He has been tamed by the villagers and acts as the watch animal for the village. But the villagers tell Biggles that Kolog's mistress, a little girl named Kasya is gravely ill from a snake bite. Biggles thinks he can treat the girl but he asks the villagers to keep his presence a secret. The villagers agree and he gives Kasya an injection from his medical kit. She recovers by the morning. Rajam, Kasya's father tells Biggles that he heard him talk in his sleep and surmises that he is a fugitive. He says the village can help him evade his enemies. They dye his skin dark and dress him in native clothes so that he can pass off as a local villager. For a week or so, Biggles is safe but somehow a gang of Karisars soon discovers him and surround the village! Biggles shoots it out with them for a while but when they threaten to burn the whole village down, he is forced to surrender. The Hawk masked man emerges and prepares to execute Biggles. But now Kasya rushes out from her hut and stands in front of Biggles, refusing to allow him a clear shot. The masked man pushes Kasya aside but Kolog has been patrolling the village perimeter and doesn't think much of people mishandling his mistress. He pounces on the masked man and claws him, inflicting fatal wounds. With their boss wounded, the Karisars flee. Biggles brings the masked man into a hut and tears off his mask. It's Marsden! The chef-de-cabinet of the Minister! No wonder Hawk was always so successful. The dying Hawk agent confesses that he had been a link in the Hawk network. Now Biggles has won and it is too late for him. Biggles asks how Hawk managed to track him down time and again. Marsden tells him it's the wristwatch he had sent for repair. Hawk had planted a tracer inside it. With the threat to his life eliminated, Biggles takes his leave of the village and returns to London. Category:Plot summaries (derivative works)